With a passion for working with our older population, Jessie Beresford from The Practice at Bundanoon is a hard-working practice nurse and clinic owner/manager. Establishing an ongoing relationship with her patients, Jess looks forward to engaging with patients to promote better health outcomes.
How long have you been a nurse and how long have you been working in South Western Sydney as a practice nurse?
I graduated in 2011 from a Bachelor of Nursing and have been working as a registered nurse ever since! I am currently studying a Diploma in Practice Management. I have worked in the hospital system as well as radiology, aged care, practice nursing, disability and governance. I have been working in South Western Sydney as a practice nurse since purchasing The Practice Bundanoon with my business partner in May 2022.
Why did you decide to pursue a career in nursing/primary care?
I had been working in management for over five years and I was ready for a new adventure and challenge. My business partner and I collaborated and decided we wanted to be able to extend our clinical knowledge and experience in our local community, hence why we purchased our own practice.
What is your day-to-day role and how do you contribute to improving clinical outcomes?
My day-to-day role is a combination of practice manager/business owner and practice nurse. The tasks at hand depend on the day. On Tuesday to Thursday most of my day involves face-to-face clinics. This includes home visits and visits for education to the local nursing home. Mondays and Fridays are business administration, including writing policies, protocols and education for our practice.
What do you love about your role as a practice nurse?
The main joy for me from my role in the practice is the therapeutic relationship you can achieve through a kind and informative clinical relationship. This enables and promotes trust and, in our experience, engages the patient to achieve a better health outcome, especially for chronic health management. It’s so great when we see patients achieving their health goals!
What is the biggest challenge of the role and how do you overcome this?
The biggest challenge is the lack of community support to assist aged care residents remain in the community or assist them into a residential aged care home or to remain in their own home with support. We live in a society where we have many older people who do not have the support network in their family unit due to many factors, including time restraints for relatives, family dynamics and not having children. This creates a gap for advocacy. In our practice we will go above and beyond to assist each patient access the assistance they need and/or entitled to, to enable them the quality of life they deserve.
Tell me about your ideal workday!
My ideal workday is going to our local café collecting a premade order of caffeine, a line-up of appointments and at the end of the day knowing you did the best you can to make a difference in that patient’s life in the moment they spent time with you.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
My spare time is filled with the love of my family. I have an energetic two-year-old girl and a supportive husband who we married two months before we took over the practice. The other spare bits of time are filled with my beautiful horses, dogs and cat who are especially patient, and enable me to have the balanced life I dreamed of!